Kiʻilua
by acipenser
Summary: Starts with Ki'ilua S02E10 when Danny rescues Steve from North Korea. Continues from there. Six chapters up, much more to come. I'm aiming for around 60k words. As of Chapter 5, very much deserving of M rating. Hot and heavy McDanno! Fluff, slash, shooting stuff, you name it.
1. Chapter 1

10

Hawaii Five-0 and its characters are not mine.

(cut)

Danny walked into Steve's office just as Steve was finishing up his phone call. Steve glanced over at his partner while he talked.

"Ye—yes sir. No, absolutely. No, no, no. Thank you, sir."

Danny watched Steve set down the phone and shake his head.

"What's up? Any luck?"

"No. The unit that supported me in North Korea has been redeployed. There's no way that they can escort Jenna to the drop site."

With a sigh, Danny succumbed to the rant he had been planning.

"Okay, listen. I know you. I know you want to put on the cape, and you want to go save the day, but please, keep in mind, please, that this is not a puddle jumper to Lanai. Okay? This is North Korea."

"I'm aware of that. Thank you, Danny."

Steve briefly glanced at Danny before he busied himself packing up his desk. Danny paced the length of the desk a few times, then turned back to Steve and sighed again.

"Okay. What do you want to do?"

Steve stopped packing and looked at Danny like he was an idiot.

"What am I gonna do? I've got to help her. I'd do the same for you, anybody else here, Danny. You know? What am I gonna do?"

Steve quickly grabbed his bag and headed to the door, but he found Danny blocking his way. They stood chest to chest, the smaller man looking up at Steve as he continued his rant.

"Wait. Whoah whoah whoah whoah whoah. Please, please, just tell me, whatever it is you're about to do, you've done before, right?"

Steve stared at him with half-lidded eyes for a moment, then lifted an eyebrow. Danny offered Steve a tight smile.

"Ahh. It's classified. Of course."

They stared at each other a moment longer before Steve started smiling at Danny.

"Why—is that concern that I see?"

Danny thrust his chin up and took a step closer.

"Yeah, jerk, I'm concerned. Big deal."

Steve's smile got even bigger as he looked at Danny. He reached out and briefly touched the other man's arm to reassure him.

"I'll be fine. Alright? It's North Korea. What could go wrong?"

Two pairs of blue eyes met and held. Steve felt Danny lean into his touch, then move away as Lori entered the room.

"Do me a favor and watch yourself, huh Steven?"

"I'll think about you the whole time, Danno."

With that, Steve smirked and walked out. Danny stared after him until Lori asked, "Hmm. What'd I miss?"

Danny looked back at Steve's desk and mumbled some response, but Lori wasn't deterred.

"You don't seem too happy about it. Is it something dangerous?"

Danny turned back to Lori, smiling distractedly.

"No, the guy's a Navy SEAL, right? Everything's fine. Nothing to worry about."

Danny was choking on his words a few hours later when Chin called with news that Jenna Kaye had lied to them about going back to D.C. He ran his hand through his hair and repeated what he thought Chin had just said.

"Hold on. I'm sorry. I can't have heard you correctly. Did you just tell me that Jenna Kaye has been living in an apartment on Maui for the last three months? She hasn't been in Washington, D.C., looking for her fiancée?"

"It looks that way, Danny. The landlord showed us a copy of her driver's license with her picture on it."

Before Chin even realized the other detective had hung up on him, Danny was haphazardly riffling through the papers on his desk. The number to Steve's satellite phone was in there somewhere.

"It's North Korea? What could go wrong?," he muttered under his breath.

The beginnings of panic were growing in his gut.

"What could go wrong?! I'll tell you what could go wrong, Steven. They have fucking nuclear weapons! And brain washing! And if something goes wrong—which I'm sure it already has—you're on the other side of the planet! If you do not answer, I am going to kill you."

Danny punched in the numbers for the satellite phone and listened to it ring.

"Come on, Steven. Answer me, buddy. Answer me."

He tried again. And again. And again. Still no answer.

Danny emerged from his office an hour later to see Chin and Kono bent over the giant computer display.

"I just tried Steve's satellite phone twenty times in the last hour. No answer."

Kono looked up at him. Upon seeing Danny's near panic-stricken state, a concerned look crossed her face.

"The area they're in is all deep forest. It may have blocked the signal."

Danny shook his head emphatically, running a hand through his slicked-back hair.

"No. Something is wrong. Something is wrong—otherwise, why would Jenna lie to us?"

Scenarios raced through Danny's mind. Had Jenna abducted Steve so she could kill him to prevent anyone from pinning her as Bethany's murderer? Was she a traitor working as a spy for another government? Would she torture Steve? Or kill him? And there was nothing a detective in Hawaii could do to stop what was happening to Steve in North Korea. Lori's entrance interrupted Danny's thoughts for the second time that day.

"Hi. Any word from Steve?"

"No. Nothing."

"Okay—look. There's got to be a number of logical explanations to why he's not answering."

Danny could not believe people were saying such idiotic things.

"No. There's nothing logical about this. Okay? We just found out that someone we work with, someone that we trusted, has been lying to us for months. And now might have something to do with our murder."

Danny pretended to focus on the display, swallowing hard a few times. As the rest of the team talked about their progress on the case that had set them on the trail of Jenna Kaye's betrayal, he worried about Steve. Steve, who had made the _haole_ detective his partner. Steve, who needed Danny to make sure he did not do anything ridiculously stupid or illegal—usually both. Steve, who was currently in the middle of North Korea with a person of unknown motives and no Danny to watch his back.

"_I've got to help her. I'd do the same for you, anybody else here, Danny."_

When Jenna had told Steve that she needed him to watch her back, he had thought of Danny. He had imagined that it was his partner asking him to watch his back. And after imagining Danny in the same situation, there was no way that Steve could let Jenna Kaye go to the drop alone.

He could not even picture the look on Danny's face if he told his partner that it was his fault that Steve was going on this mission in the first place. Danny would have an aneurysm at the very least. He seemed incapable of having a normal, level-headed reaction to anything—he would be a terrible SEAL. But even though Danny would be the worst SEAL in the history of SEALdom, he was the best partner Steve had ever had.

As the plane began its descent, Steve ran his hand over his hair in a motion reminiscent of Danny's nervous tick. For all of his reassurances, he had a bad feeling about this mission. He and Jenna did not have control over any element of the drop; he doubted that he could stop the North Koreans from just taking the money and shooting them both. He would give anything to have Danny here watching his back. Jenna looked over at him, and Steve turned his thoughts back to the drop as they reviewed the plan together.

After the landing, Steve and Jenna began their journey to the designated drop site. Steve knew Danny would accuse him of being paranoid, but he could not help but wonder if the driver they had found had been bought and paid for by the North Koreans. If something went wrong, he would not count on the driver to get him and Jenna back to safety. They were alone in the middle of enemy territory.

After an hour of driving increasingly backwater roads, they finally entered forest. They were nearing the border, and according to Jenna, the drop site was ten miles past that. Steve looked over at Jenna.

"Do you have the satellite phone on you? I want to call Danny and let him get a lock on where we are in case something goes bad."

Jenna took out the phone and shook her head.

"We don't have any reception here."

"It's the trees," Steve muttered. "We should have tried him before we got into this forest."

Danny hated trees; no, that was too specific. Danny hated nature of any sort—forests, oceans, the outdoors in general. Maybe "hated" was too strong a word, but Steve could just imagine the litany he would have to listen to if Danny was along. He would be complaining about the trees, the mosquitoes, the dirt, and god knows what else. The North Koreans would be able to hear them coming before they even crossed the border.

Complaints about the forest were not unfounded, though. The vegetation around them was worrisome. It was so thick that the enemy could easily set up an ambush that would go undetected until it was too late. Steve felt his unease about the operation growing. He would feel a lot better if he could have made that phone call. Even if Danny had not been able to track their location from the call, just hearing his voice would have helped ease the uncharacteristic jitters Steve was feeling. He had been on hundreds of operations like this in the Navy; he was used to pre-op apprehension. This was something more, though. The next time he did something like this, he was bringing his partner with him.

They had been driving about fifteen minutes into denser and denser forest—they had to be getting close. Steve clutched his gun tighter and turned to Jenna Kaye.

"Listen to me, Jenna. We don't give these guys any money until we have a positive ID on Josh, okay?"

Jenna nodded at Steve as the North Koreans' vehicle came into view. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw Jenna quickly look down at the satellite phone. He wondered if someone was calling them—maybe Danny—but there was no room for distraction now.

The second Steve saw the hooded hostage jump out of the vehicle, his gut told him it was not Josh. The captive was shoved on his knees in front of the North Koreans' vehicle, and Steve got a better look at him. They had been duped: wrong height, wrong weight, wrong skin tone, and not sick enough for someone who had been held for over a year. Everything was wrong. They needed to get out of here now.

And that was when he saw the man hiding behind a tree. The damn trees. Steve reacted with one of the first lessons he had learned as a SEAL—shoot anything that is shooting at you. The North Koreans dropped back behind their vehicle when he started shooting. Since Steve did not have a bulletproof vehicle to hide behind, he used a tree as cover, protecting Jenna and himself. The driver that had brought them to the drop site had run away at the first sign of trouble, but if he could just get to their vehicle—

_Click._

The cocking of a pistol behind him brought his planning to an abrupt halt. Turning, Steve felt his belly drop out. Jenna was pointing a pistol straight at him. Behind him, he heard someone walking up. The blow that followed was not unexpected, but when Steve saw who had delivered it, he realized he was in deep shit. Because while North Korea alone might not be enough to scare a super SEAL, North Korea plus Wo Fat was terrifying.

Steve allowed Wo Fat's men to tie him up and passively took the hits they aimed at him. Now was not the time to try to escape—he was in unfamiliar territory with eight heavily-armed North Koreans surrounding him. He wondered if he could somehow get Jenna to turn on Wo Fat. There was no way that the man actually had Jenna's fiancée; she would realize that soon enough. Maybe he could help the process along.

Steve turned to Wo Fat and asked, "How long has she been working for you? That story she told me about her fiancée—is it true?"

Wo Fat ignored him; Steve turned back to look at Jenna. Before the brute behind him whacked him on his head again, he caught a glimpse of Jenna's face—she had bought Wo Fat's lie hook, line, and sinker. The rest of the trek, Steve remained silent. He did not know where he was going, had no idea what kind of escape he would have to plan. And it would be hard—maybe impossible—to get out without Jenna Kaye's help. Was there anybody in his life that he would be so desperate to save that he would turn against friends and team members? Steve was surprised at whose face popped into his head. At this rate, he _was_ going to end up thinking about Danny the whole time.

The group halted suddenly. Wo Fat walked up to a door that was partially hidden by vegetation. Steve did not see a building connected to it; it was just a lone door in the middle of the forest. Wo Fat walked through it and turned backwards, facing them as he climbed down a ladder. The door led to a bunker. Escape was not going to be easy. Bunkers were like underground mazes. There were no windows or other openings to escape through. Even finding a door to get out was difficult.

Steve kept track of the number of steps he took, the directions of the turns, rooms that looked like they were in use, and passages that looked abandoned. Anything he noticed now could help him if he managed to get out of wherever they locked him up. There were more men throughout the bunker; they filled the first two rooms he passed. A horrible, putrefying stench came from the third room they walked by—that would be last on his list of possible escape routes.

The two men who had frog marched Steve through the bunker shoved him through a door just past the third room. He tried to overcome his attackers before their eyes adjusted to the dimness, but it was to no avail. Another man assisted them in tying his hands to the ceiling above. When that man left, the beating began. It seemed to go on forever. The two men in the room did not say anything; they just took turns hitting him.

Hours turned into days; days turned into weeks. Logic told him he could not have been in the bunker more than a day, but it felt like he had been underground much longer. His toes were numb from trying to support himself so his arms would not be wrenched from their sockets. His arms were burning from trying to hold his body up. And he could not even think about anything in between. His captors had been brutal. They would beat him until they tired, rest an hour, then come back and beat him until they tired again. At this point, Steve was actually praying to see Wo Fat. His current tormentors were just the openers; Wo Fat would be the main event.

Steve hung suspended in pain. His only certainty was that his tormentors would return and beat him again. His thoughts drifted back to Five-0. The team must know something had gone wrong. Danny was probably going nuts. Steve was the one who always depressurized Danny when stream started coming out of the blond man's ears. That was how they worked—Steve kept Danny from exploding, and Danny kept Steve from getting exploded. They were partners, and Steve was certain that Danny was trying to find him. If there were any way he could stop him, save Danny and the rest of Five-0 from the rat's nest he had walked into—

The dreaded noise of the door opening halted Steve's thoughts. He braced himself for another beating. The men used their fists this time. The sticks they had used before had stung when they hit his skin, but the punches were causing deeper damage like cracked ribs. Then the door opened again. Steve hoped it would be Wo Fat at last. Instead, a struggling Jenna Kaye was shoved into the room, sans fiancée. The men who had been beating him helped chain her to the wall, then left Steve alone with Jenna. He would rather have finished the beating than be stuck with Jenna; he could not stand looking at her. He might be the one who had suffered from her betrayal, but it could have been anyone on Five-0. It could have been Chin or Kono. Or Danny.

"Why?"

Jenna shook her head in defeat.

"I had no choice."

"We let you in, we treated you as one of our own, we trusted you. I came down here, I didn't ask one question."

"Wo Fat told me Josh was alive."

Steve was disgusted.

"And you just took him for his word?"

"He showed me his ring. He had pictures. But more than anything I needed to believe it. I would have done anything to save him."

Steve was faced again with the question he had asked himself earlier. He knew who he would give anything to save. And while he could not forgive Jenna for her choice, he could understand it.

"So you decided to trade him for me."

"Yes."

"So where is he, Kaye?"

"You have to understand, this reporter came to me, looking into Josh's operation. She said she had a source that said that Josh was alive. And I thought, if anyone could survive…. He's a lot like you. A fighter, you know? There was this one night. We were supposed to have dinner in D.C.—The Capital Grille. And it was raining, and he was late, and his car wouldn't start. So he hops on his bike, of all things. Got in this horrible accident. Got hit by a car. Had to have these _pins_ put in his knee. And when I reached the hospital, I just lit into him. He's always rushing around like that for nothing. That's when he pulled out the ring, and he said, 'It wasn't for nothing.'"

Jenna had no clue how far Wo Fat had played her.

"The reporter who came to you—was her name Bethany Morrison?"

"How did you know?"

"She's dead. She had her neck snapped."

"No….," Jenna moaned.

"You don't get it, do you Kaye? Wo Fat was her source. He sent….," Steve trailed off, then continued haltingly.

"He sent Morrison straight to you. To give you hope. That Josh was still alive."

"And my hope got her killed."

Steve did not say it out loud, but Jenna's hope was going to get more than just Bethany Morrison killed. And he had a good idea who the next victim was going to be when Wo Fat walked through the door with an ominous-looking cudgel in his hand and a gun in his waistband, looking straight at him.

The ominous-looking cudgel turned out to be an electrical, ominous-looking cudgel. Steve could not remember what Wo Fat asked him from one shock to the next. All he could focus on was the constant pain; the pain of the shock itself, and then the pain as his body tried to relax from the tension post-shock.

He would say anything to make it stop. What did it matter? Wo Fat was going to kill him when he was done. He was not a man who left loose ends. Steve knew he was dead either way—why not make the shocking stop sooner? And then Danny's face popped into his head again. Wo Fat was not going to stop with Steve. He was going to go after his whole team, probably Joe White, too.

Echoing his thoughts, Wo Fat asked, "What about Joe White? What did he tell you?"

"Joe White…Joe White doesn't know anything about Shelbourne, okay?"

"You're lying."

And then the pain overcame everything else as Wo Fat put his fists to Steve. Each time he took a blow, he remembered that he was taking it instead of Danny. He needed to get through this and get back to his team before Wo Fat did.

The pain was interrupted by a guard. He showed something to Wo Fat—the satellite phone. Steve shifted his gaze to find Jenna watching him.

"_It wasn't for nothing_," she whispered, tossing a _pin_ toward Steve seconds before Wo Fat turned and shot her twice in the chest.

Time stopped as Steve watched the bullets hit Jenna Kaye.

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Steve screamed his rage at Wo Fat. Nobody shot his team members. Even though Jenna had betrayed them, she had been part of the team. It could have been any Five-0 member in her place. Steve raged uncontrollably as Wo Fat turned from where Jenna's body lay to address him.

"We're getting on a plane in one hour, and you're taking me to Shelbourne."

With that, Wo Fat left the room. The second he was out of sight, Steve acted. It was now or never. Picking up the pin with his toes, he used his bruised muscles to painfully lift the pin to his hands. He picked the lock on his hands in seconds.

Jenna's lifeless body lay in the corner. Steve limped to it. Her eyes stared at him. But they were not just Jenna's eyes—they were Chin's eyes, Kono's eyes. Danny's eyes. He raised his hand to her face and ran his hand down it, closing the haunting dead eyes of his team before beginning his escape.

Ten feet down the hallway, he saw the ladder that led to the outside world. In front of it was a guard. Steve disabled him in seconds. Hearing another guard approach, he stood close to the wall and took down the guard as he passed by. Steve grabbed the man's gun and climbed the ladder to the outside world.

Wo Fat was waiting for him above ground. For the second time that day, Steve found himself falling after a blow from behind. Wo Fat's men swarmed over him with restraints, and he was right back where he had started. He needed to delay. If Five-0 had managed to get a trace on Jenna's final call, they would have this location. He needed to stay here. Steve struggled desperately, but he was eventually overpowered and hauled into the back of one of the trucks in the waiting convoy.

One of Wo Fat's men climbed into the back and stood guard over Steve as the convoy moved out. With the business end of an automatic pointing at him, Steve was not going to try anything. He lay quietly on the floor of the vehicle, squinting toward the slit in the bottom of the cover. Landmarks, funny-looking trees, anything to keep track of where he was—his only hope of rescue was back at the bunker.

At first Steve thought he was imagining the helicopter. The faint droning noise was probably just a bug trapped in the truck. But as it grew closer, he knew his imagination was not playing tricks on him. And then he heard an explosion to the front. His chances of coming out of this alive were slimming by the minute. He felt the trucks turn and reverse course. Uneasy mutterings were coming from the men. When the convoy halted again, Steve curled up as small as he could and waited for the ambush. Seconds later, the gunfire began and his guard jumped out into the fray. Steve resigned himself to death at the bullets of some unknown enemy of Wo Fat. The irony. Danny would kill him if he ever got out of this one.

The canvas on the back of the truck was suddenly thrown open and light flooded over Steve. He opened his eyes and saw Danny's face staring back at him. Steve blinked to clear his eyes. This was not the time for stress-induced hallucinations. Then the hallucination started yelling very realistically.

"It's Steve!"

Danny stared into the dim interior of the truck. It was Steve, battered, bruised and bloodied, but it was Steve. The disoriented eyes staring back at him lit up when he started yelling.

"I've got Steve! He's alive!"

Danny jumped into the truck and scrambled over to Steve. Kneeling over Steve, their legs intertwined, Danny grabbed Steve's hands and held them for a minute as Steve just stared at him.

"Where's Wo Fat?"

Steve's question broke their silence, and Danny hastily started untying his restraints.

"Just shut up, would you?"

The rest of the team appeared at the opening of the truck. Huge smiles covered their faces. Steve continued to stare at the team in a daze.

"Let's move out," Joe White called.

Danny moved behind Steve, and wrapping his arms around him, dragged him to the edge of the truck. Chin moved forward and helped Steve out of the truck, supporting his left side. Sliding down, Danny felt Steve put his right arm over his shoulder. He looked up to see Steve still staring at him through wide blue eyes. Danny slid his left arm along Steve's lower back; his hand found Steve's hip, and his arm wrapped firmly around Steve's waist.

Looking at Chin, he said, "Let's go!"

The team moved briskly toward the opening nearby where the helicopter had landed. Lori jumped out of the helicopter to wrap her arms around her three team members, then moved away as Joe, Danny, and Chin lifted Steve onto the floor of the helicopter. As soon as Danny took his seat, he felt Steve lean back against his leg. Danny set his hand on Steve's shoulder and saw that Steve was staring at him again. Danny grinned.

"Oh, don't worry. You can thank me when we get back to Oahu."


	2. Chapter 2

_-"Oh, don't worry. You can thank me when we get back to Oahu."-_

The drone of the helicopter filled the relaxed silence that had fallen over the team. Within minutes of taking off, the fatigue had hit Steve like a wall. He had been passed out on the floor with his head resting against Danny's knee for the last hour. He had not stirred since falling asleep, even when they picked up Kono. Danny glanced up from Steve to see Joe White watching him.

"We should get your boy checked out by a doctor when we get back to Hawaii."

"That's all you, Joe. He never listens to me, even when I make perfectly reasonable suggestions such as seeking medical care after torture."

Commander White shook his head and grinned.

"I'll set Steve straight. Maybe we can get that one doctor you guys work with to look at him."

Lori turned around in the front seat.

"It won't be the first time he's had to patch McGarrett up, Joe. I'll call Max when we get closer to Hawaii."

Focusing on where Steve was sprawled over Danny's legs, Lori frowned.

"Are you still staying with him, Danny? Somebody should keep an eye on him the next few days."

Danny looked and the ceiling and let out a dramatic sigh.

"Did I tell you guys I finally found the perfect place? I just signed the lease a couple of days ago. I was going to move in yesterday. I could have spent last night sleeping on a real bed. But instead, I was rescuing Steve the super SEAL—"

"I'd be happy to spend the night with Steve," Lori put in, winking at Joe.

"—getting eaten by mosquitoes and shot at by North Koreans. What Lori? No, no, no. I'll stay with Steve. You don't want to spend the night at his house anyways. The horrible ocean noises keep you up all night. I regularly have nightmares about drowning and death by shark attack and—"

"Are you sure you're okay with that Danny?," Lori asked in a concerned voice. "I really don't mind."

Danny broke off and turned to stare at Joe, who was coughing uncontrollably at his side. He whacked Joe on the back a few times before asking, "Are you okay?"

Joe took a few deep breaths.

"Sorry," he said, meeting Lori's eyes and then suddenly succumbing to another coughing fit. Danny slapped Joe's back again. "Uhh, the talk of drowning just really got to me," Joe coughed out.

"Oh, okay. Well, anyways, I'm not sure if I will survive another night on that horrible couch of Steve's. Did I mention that it makes this blood-curdling screeching noise if you so much as breathe?"

Danny continued to describe the failings of Steve's couch in excruciating detail—oblivious to Lori and Joe's silently shaking shoulders—for another ten minutes until Steve lifted his head to say "Just shut up, would you?" before settling it back down on Danny's thigh. That shut Danny up for the rest of the helicopter ride. Five minutes out from the landing strip where they would transfer back to their plane, Joe broke the silence.

"We need to get Steve cleaned up a little bit before we land. I've got a passport for him, but we don't need the officials noticing anything out of the ordinary about our little humanitarian mission."

Joe handed Danny a water bottle and a clean shirt for Steve.

"Now, let me fill everyone in about the exact details of this humanitarian mission we have been on," Joe said to the rest of the team.

"Hey," Danny said, squeezing Steve's shoulder. "Wake up, Steven. We're going to land soon buddy."

He carefully removed his leg from behind Steve and settled him back against the seat. Kneeling between Steve's outstretched legs, he started to wipe off his partner's face. As the blood came off, Danny let out a low whistle. Steve cracked his eyes and looked up at Danny, smiling slightly.

"Don't say it," he murmured.

Danny smirked back at him and bit back the jibe about Steve's pretty face that had been on the tip of his tongue. He moved on to wipe Steve's neck, and then moved to unbutton his shirt. Steve flinched before Danny even touched him. He mumbled something under his breath that Danny couldn't make out.

"What?"

Steve just shook his head and leaned back, shutting his eyes again. Danny gently unbuttoned Steve's shirt and pulled it off. Then he handed Steve the new one and winced sympathetically as he watched his partner gingerly ease into it. As Steve started to button it up, Danny reached out and pushed his hands away.

"Hey. I'll get that for you."

"Ready over there, Danny?," Joe called over. "I can see the landing strip."

Danny nodded. Less than half an hour later, they were taking off in the plane that would take them back to Hawaii.

(cut)

As promised, Max was waiting at McGarrett's house when they pulled up in Lori's car. He must have been waiting there for awhile, because he had a magnifying glass out and was scrutinizing a piece of shrubbery in the front lawn. He did not look up from his intense examination until Lori had jumped out of the driver's seat and started talking to him. Steve was slower getting out of the car. He groaned, but Danny was not sure whether he was expressing discomfort or disgust with having to let Max poke and prod at him.

"Danny, are you sure I have to—"

Steve quickly broke off as Danny opened his mouth to begin a rant about some ridiculous made-up injury Steve might possibly have.

"Okay, okay. Hey Max! I'm over here—leave off Lori and let's get this done with."

Max broke off his chatter with Lori and turned to face Steve.

"You look fine to me."

Steve turned to Danny.

"You see? Max says I'm fine."

"Well, actually, Steve, I was merely stating my general impression. I will need you to tell me exactly what happened to you so I can perform a thorough assessment of any possibly injuries. Now, Lori and Danny, if you will please excuse Steve and me."

Max turned and headed toward the house, Steve reluctantly following along.

"Don't let him play it down, Max," Danny called after them. "Steve took quite a beating."

Max stopped and turned around.

"I will interpret that as concern for Steve and not as doubt in my abilities as a medical doctor. Now, if you please."

Danny grinned at Lori as doctor and patient disappeared into Steve's house.

"I hope I don't get the silent treatment for that one. I'm still hoping for an invite to the next 'theme movie night.' What is he thinking of doing this week? How about 'Enemy Mine'? It's sci fi. Max will love it."

Lori laughed.

"I'll suggest it to him, but I would work on getting an invitation first. He might be talking to you and Steve again, but I'm not sure if you guys have redeemed yourselves enough for a theme movie night invite."

"Well, I guess I will have to tell Max about my super popcorn popper. I got it for movie nights with Grace. Best popcorn ever. I bet you don't have that at theme movie night!"

Lori just laughed and shook her head.

"You clearly need to see Max's place. He's got it all."

Danny raised his eyebrow at that, but uncharacteristically refrained from commenting. A comfortable silence overtook them until Max re-emerged from the house.

"I do not suspect any serious injuries, although I cannot confirm that without getting Steve to a hospital. He adamantly refuses to go. I have instructed Steve to avoid any strenuous activity for the next couple of days. You will be staying with him, Danny?"

Danny nodded.

"Yeah. Thanks for coming over, Max. I really appreciate it, and I'm sure Steve does too, even if he's trying to be all macho super SEAL about it."

"It was no problem. Shall we, Lori?," Max asked, climbing into the front seat of Lori's car. Lori winked at Max as she got in, and Danny frowned as he watched them drive away.

"Hey!," Danny yelled after the car. "When is theme movie night, Max? I have a couple of movie suggestions! And I can bring my popcorn maker! Grace says it's the best popcorn in the world!"

He watched the car disappear around the corner.

"Maybe he'll respond to an e-mail?," Danny wondered as he walked into Steve's house.

He could hear the shower running when he got inside. Grabbing a beer out of the refrigerator, he sat down and turned the TV on to a channel that was a gold infomercial. He was still there with his feet propped up on the coffee table in front of him, snoring like some kind of wild beast, when Steve got out of the shower fifteen minutes later. Steve grabbed Danny's unfinished beer and took a swallow as he flipped through for a different channel. Sitting down on the couch next to something that could only be described as a snoring bear in deep hibernation, Steve finished Danny's beer and settled on a marathon of _Law & Order: SVU_.

The marathon was still running when Steve woke up; he had made it through two episodes before drifting off. The first thing he noticed upon awakening was that the hibernating bear had migrated onto his side of the couch. Danny was sprawled across the entire couch so that Steve found himself tucked snugly against the arm on the far end. The only reason he had not been pushed off entirely was so that Danny could use his lap as a pillow. Steve reached for the beer he had been drinking but found it empty.

"Uh. Danny?"

_Snore._

"Danno? You mind moving over a little bit?"

Another snore answered him. Careful not to wake his sleeping partner, Steve lifted Danny's head and slid out from under him. He grabbed another beer out of the refrigerator and slipped out onto the back porch to watch the sun set over the ocean.

When he had descended into that bunker, he had wondered if he would ever come out of it—dead or alive. He could have died down there, and nobody would have found him. The uncertainty of his fate would have killed Danny. Steve stared at the sunset and lifted the bottle to his lips. He would not have made it out of North Korea without his team. And when he got home, another friend had been there to patch him up.

His entire torso was a mess. There were lacerations from the sticks, bruises from the fists, and localized burns from the shocks. Max had told him there was not much else he could do other than keep everything clean and go to an actual hospital if anything got worse. His mouth was sore from when Wo Fat clipped him in the jaw, and he suspected he was developing two beautiful shiners courtesy of Wo Fat's henchmen. It was probably the worst beating he had ever gotten. He had been shot before, but it was nothing like being restrained and at the mercy of his tormentors for hours. The SEALs had taught him ways to try to minimize damage from beatings, but by the time Wo Fat had his turn with Steve, he had been little more than a punching bag suspended from the bunker ceiling.

He would listen to Danny the next time he went on about how Steve was about to do something "stupid." As a SEAL, he had lived for the excitement and unpredictability; that had changed during his time at Five-0. He still loved the excitement, but he was growing to appreciate the stability and dependability of working with Five-0. He was still catching the bad guys, but he now was doing at home in Hawaii with his friends.

Everything would be perfect if he could just catch Wo Fat. The man was slippery, and Steve did not have any evidence to hold him on even if he managed to catch him. At least Wo Fat was just as clueless as he was about the meaning of Shelbourne. Steve sighed and walked back into the house. There was no way Danny would let him go into work tomorrow—probably the rest of the week. The man fretted over Steve like he was his wife or something. But that did not mean it was lost time; Steve could use his days off to see if he could come up with anything more about the meaning of Shelbourne.

He walked over to the couch. Danny was still snoring exactly as he had left him, sprawled over prime _SVU_-watching real estate. Lifting up his partner's head, Steve sat down and propped his feet up on the coffee table. Then he lowered Danny's snoring head back onto his lap, drinking his beer and settling in for another episode of _SVU_.

A few episodes later, Danny let out a huge snore that startled him into rolling off of the couch under the coffee table. Steve was leaning down to peer under the table, concerned for his partner, when another massive snore from beneath it met his ears. He jumped back when the table made a loud cracking noise. Danny had woken himself up with his snoring, and in trying to sit up, his head had met the bottom of the coffee table with a resounding thud. Rolling out from under the table, Danny sat up and looked around wildly, reaching for the gun that was not on him.

"Wuh? Steve—did you hear those noises? Is there a wild animal attacking us? What's happening?"

Danny turned to find his partner in a spasm, holding his sides in apparent pain.

"Steve? Are you okay? I'm going to call Max."

"No. Max. No."

Steve's words were interrupted by weird gasping noises. He made to stand up, but Danny hopped back up on the couch next to him and reached over to place an arm on Steve's shoulder.

"Just don't move. What's wrong? Are you having abdominal pain? You could have ruptured something, or there could be internal bleeding, or maybe a cracked rib broke and punctured your lungs!"

Steve was finding it hard to breathe as he watched Danny's hands move down his chest to lift up his shirt and look for a bone sticking out or god knows what else.

"Stop. Stop. Danno," Steve howled.

And that was when Danny realized that Steve was laughing.

"You're laughing? What are you laughing at, Steven?"

Danny looked around the room and finally focused on the TV, where _SVU_ was still playing.

"You're laughing at a TV show that is about rape and abuse and murder? What is wrong with you? That is not funny! It's sad, Steven. It's sad! I can't even watch the show because I think of Grace whenever I do. And here you are, laughing at it! What is wrong with you?"

Steve focused on taking deep breaths as Danny ranted at him. Laughing actually was extraordinarily painful. When Danny stopped for breath, Steve cut in.

"I was not laughing at rape and abuse and murder."

Steve stopped to take a few more deep breaths before succumbing to laughter again. Danny had a strange feeling that something like this had already happened to him earlier today.

"Steven. If you do not tell me what is going on, I am going to call Max anyways. And I am going to have him commit you to an asylum for complete lunacy."

"Do you remember what you asked when you woke up, Danny?," Steve gasped between laughs.

"Yeah," Danny said, suddenly looking around. "What was that noise, anyways? Was Yeti on the TV or something?"

"That. Was. You. Danno."

Steve was howling with laughter now at the perplexed look on Danny's face.

"You are the loudest, most obnoxious snorer I have ever heard."

"Excuse me, Steven, but I do not snore."

"You do."

"Do not."

"Danny. You have honestly never had anyone tell you before that you snore?"

"No, Steven. I have always been described as a courteous and non-snoring bed partner, if you must know."

"Really, Danny?"

There was silence for a minute, then Steve asked, "Who told you that?"

"I am a gentleman, Steven. I do not kiss and tell."

"Hmm. Speaking of not kissing and telling, what's the deal with Lori and Max?"

"What deal?"

"Well, I mean, she has Max's personal number. And he told me that he had 'plans' with her tonight."

"Huh. Do you think they're an item or something?"

"That's what I was asking you, Danny."

"Oh. I dunno."

The two lapsed into a thoughtful silence.

Then Danny asked, "Why, are you into her or something?"

Steve laughed.

"Not my type."

"You know, Steve, what _is_ your type?"

Steve chuckled.

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know. I don't kiss and tell, either, Mr. 'I'm-a-perfect-gentleman'."

Then Steve added, "But Lori is really hot."

"Yeah," Danny agreed with a goofy grin on his face. "We've got to get ourselves a theme movie night invite."

"Yeah."

Silence fell again.

"So have you talked to Rachel lately?"

"Nope."

"Do you want to?"

"No."

A few more minutes of silence.

"I love Grace. I want to love Rachel for Grace's sake. I mean, it's hard enough being a kid without having to deal with divorced parents. If we can't be together, I wish we could just get along, but even that is hard. And after the whole pregnancy thing…."

"Whether or not you have a wife, Rachel or anyone else, you are a fantastic parent, Danny. Grace loves you. And that's all that matters."

"Yeah. I realize that now. I'll still always be there for Rachel, but I think I need to move on."

Steve grunted in agreement and stretched, spreading his arms out over the back of the couch.

"You still seeing that scientist lady?"

"No."

"What about Lori?"

"I thought you said she and Max are an item."

"Yeah. That's a good point. We'll just have to enjoy from afar at theme movie night."

"You know, Steve, what do we need women for, anyways? They steal your children and kill your dogs and run off on you, and yet you still end up following them to the most hellish places on earth. Women are no good. I'm done."

"You really don't like it here?," Steve asked with a frown.

"No. I do not like sharks. I do not like shrimp tofu. I do not like ghosts and men who try to give my daughter alcohol when she goes trick or treating!"

"Is there anything about it that you do like, Danny?"

Danny thought hard.

"Well, I guess Five-0 is okay."

"Just okay?"

"Oh, shut up, Steven. You know what I mean."

"Well then, I know that you're looking forward to another exciting day of work tomorrow."

The two cell phones sitting on the coffee table rang simultaneously. Both men groaned and reached for their phones.

"Or right now."

"I'm only letting you go to this scene if you promise not to chase or shoot anyone, Steven."

"I'm assuming that's your offer to do all chasing and shooting for me, Danno. Let's get going!"


	3. Chapter 3

_-"I'm only letting you go to this scene if you promise not to chase or shoot anyone, Steven."_

"_I'm assuming that's your offer to do all chasing and shooting for me, Danno. Let's get going!"-_

Chin and Kono were bent over the giant computer display when Steve and Danny walked into the Five-0 headquarters.

"What's up?," Steve asked, looking down at the display. It showed a map of Oahu zoomed in on Honolulu Harbor.

"We got an anonymous tip that a large shipment of cocaine will be arriving tonight at Honolulu Harbor on a Columbian fishing vessel. Lori is taking care of contacting the other agencies right now. Chin and I have been looking at the dock lists for tonight. We see three Columbian ships that are scheduled to dock, but none of them are fishing vessels."

"What about looking at older lists for ships matching our description that have been regularly docking at the harbor?"

"Already on it, Boss. I found three Columbian fishing vessels that have docked at least once a month in the harbor over the past year. According to current harbor reports, one of them docked just this morning. It looks like they unloaded their cargo of tilapia this afternoon. They're scheduled to head out tomorrow morning."

Danny tapped the display.

"That's got to be our ship. Cartels smuggle drugs in crates of fish so that the dogs can't smell them. Hey hey hey. Where are you going Steve?"

Steve was through the door before Danny finished his question.

"They could be unloading now. Let's go, Danno," Steve called back.

"I said no chasing or shooting you idiot! Come back, Steven!"

Chin and Kono laughed as Danny ran out the door after Steve.

"I just missed Steve and Danny, didn't I?," Lori asked, walking out of the office where she had been making phone calls.

"Yeah. They're headed off to the harbor now. Did you get in contact with HPD?"

Lori nodded.

"HPD units are en route to the harbor. I'm assuming if Steve and Danny are headed to the harbor, you identified the vessel. Can you give me the information so I can inform Customs and the DEA?"

"I e-mailed you the registration number and docking information that I pulled from Honolulu Harbor records. Do you want to make the call in the car? We should catch up with Steve and Danny. I'll drive, cuz," Kono said, reaching for the keys sitting on a nearby table.

Chin groaned as they all headed out to the car.

"I'll let Steve and Danny know that we're right behind them. Although with the way you drive, Kono, we'll probably end up there ahead of them."

(cut)

"That was Chin. He says HPD units are en route to the harbor. Lori has also informed Customs and the DEA, but they're going to take about an hour to mobilize. Maybe we could wait for them. You know, this could really help interagency relations. Let them help us make the bust. And then you and I don't have to try to take down an entire ship of armed drug dealers alone. Just a thought, Steven."

"Relax, Danny. We'll just check out the situation, make sure the drugs haven't already been unloaded."

"How are we going to make sure the drugs haven't already been unloaded? Are you going to try to sneak onto the ship or something?"

"Of course, Danno. You can stand watch on the dock and make sure they don't start unloading."

"Whoah whoah whoah. You think I'm going to let you sneak onto a ship? No way. We are going to get a visual on it, and then we are going to wait for Customs and the DEA. These guys are not fishermen. They're members of a drug cartel. Please, please, please no sneaking, no chasing, and no shooting. Understand?"

Steve gave Danny a funny look. He had been the recipient of a rant just like this before he had left for North Korea, and look at how that had turned out. He probably owed Danny at least one since he had not only warned him about North Korea, but had also seriously saved his ass. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Danny open his mouth to continue his rant.

"Okay, Danno. We can wait this time," he said as they pulled past the gate to the docks. "We'll just find the fishing vessel and have a stake out. You brought snacks, right?"

"I…shooting people…you think it's my job to bring you snacks, Steven? Do you think I am your girlfriend or something?"

Danny smoothly transitioned from what was going to be a long diatribe about sneaking, chasing, and shooting into a heated rant about how Steve was a "big SEAL" who could and should look out for himself. And looking out for himself began with providing himself his own snacks. Steve sighed and focused on the ships' registration numbers as he slowly drove past. Apparently even when you agreed with Danny he still found something to argue about.

"Why don't you use some of your super SEAL skills to make a fishing rod, and you can be all 'man versus wild' when catch your own dinner. Or don't you guys have those things in the Army—"

"How many times do I have to tell you it's the Navy, Danno. The Navy!"

"Yeah, like I said, don't you have those 'mer' things in the Navy—"

Steve drove two ships past where the Colombian shipping vessel was moored. He pulled a sharp U-turn so they could see any activity happening and put the car into park.

"It's not a 'mer,' Danny, it's an MRE," Steve corrected absently, peering into the dark at their target.

"Like I said, MREs in the Army," Danny continued without stopping to draw breath. Steve sighed and leaned back in his seat, resting his arms behind his head and watching the fishing vessel, hoping that he would see something happen onboard the currently-dark ship so that he could escape the car and his partner's bizarre descriptions about Steve's "Army days." It was sixteen minutes and thirty four seconds by Steve's count before Danny stopped his ranting. The two men fell into a comfortable silence.

Darkness surrounded Steve and Danny. Outside, the night sky was tinged with the lights of Oahu. An ocean breeze curled around the car and wafted through its slightly-lowered windows to bring some of the cool night air inside. Waves were lapping gently at boat hulls, and faint city sounds could be heard in the distance. Times like this made Danny think that Hawaii might not be such a terrible place after all.

He turned and looked at his partner. Steve's seat was tilted back, and he had his arms up behind his head, resting on interlocked fingers. His eyes were almost closed, and he looked unusually peaceful. His partner seemed asleep, but Danny was pretty sure that this was some kind of sleep-saving surveillance technique Steve had learned in the Arm—the Navy.

Danny's eyes wandered over his partner's body. Although he would never be caught dead in the "cargo pants and muscle shirt" outfit himself, he had to admit it looked pretty badass. His gaze rested on Steve's biceps. Actually, Steve's biceps would look good in anything. Or nothing. Danny shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Getting sleepy over there Danno?"

"Absolutely not, Steven."

"Good, because you wouldn't want to wake up and suddenly find the boat gone."

"Ha. I would be more worried about finding _you_ gone, Steven. I know that you're just sitting over there, waiting for me to fall asleep so that you can sneak off and shoot some drug dealers."

Watching Steve grin, Danny scowled.

"Do not grin at me like that. This is a legitimate concern. You have a history of this kind of behavior—a well-documented history, because I always have to write the reports afterwards."

"You're right, Danno. You know me too well," Steve said, smirking.

A frown crossed Danny's face, and he turned to stare out the car window.

"What, Danno?"

"What do you mean 'What, Danno'?"

"You've got that look on your face."

"Oh, that's great, Steve. _I_ have a look on _my_ face? I'm not the one who has an aneurysm face."

"You're so funny Danny."

Steve managed to wait about a minute before he asked again, "So what was the look about?"

Danny turned back from staring out the window to look at Steve. His eyes drifted down Steve's body, then back up to make direct eye contact with him.

"What I was thinking was that I actually don't know you that well."

Steve eyebrows shot up practically to his hairline.

"You don't know me that well? You've been sleeping in my house for the last month, Danny. I think that means we know each other pretty well."

Danny looked at him for a second and then said, "So why do I not know what your 'type' is?"

"My type? What type?"

Steve looked utterly perplexed.

"Your type, Steven! You did not answer when I asked you earlier tonight."

The befuddlement on Steve's face turned into a frown.

"Why do you need to know my type, Danny? Do you have someone in mind for me or something? I'm all set with Catherine, thank you very much."

"Do you ever want something more?"

Steve's frown got bigger.

"I don't know. Not right now, that's for sure. I like what I have with Catherine. It's easy, no drama. But I guess I've never had 'something more.'"

Both men sat in silence for a minute.

"You've had that, Danno—was it worth it?"

Danny's frown mirrored Steve's.

"I don't know. Sometimes I think Rachel and I were like two puzzle pieces that weren't meant to fit, but we managed to interlock once. And now, I keep thinking it can happen again. But I think the pieces are so deformed from being jammed together the first time that there's no way they can fit again."

Steve raised his eyebrows.

"Wow. That was really deep, Danny."

Before he could say anymore, the dock around them lit up with spotlights and shouts filled the air.

"What the—"

Danny was out of the car with his gun in hand.

"Damnit! The fucking seatbelt's stuck."

Danny looked back saw Steve reaching for his knife to cut the seatbelt away.

"Do NOT use that knife on my car," Danny yelped, practically launching himself at Steve's lap in an attempt to protect his beloved car. "Don't touch it, Steve."

He reached over and pushed the button on Steve's belt buckle. It didn't move, but it felt like the button was stuck. He leaned to look more closely at the buckle. Muffled sounds of sirens came from outside on the dock. Danny's fingers accidentally brushed Steve's hip as he tried the buckle again, and Steve let out a strangled whisper.

"Danno—"

There was a sharp rapping sounded on the driver side window.

"—we've got company."

"Sir, what's going on in…."

Danny looked up from fiddling with the seat belt to see an HPD officer wearing an extremely scandalized expression on his face. Steve rolled down the window, and they were hit by a cacophony of sounds—helicopters, idling engines, and shouts of "Police! Nobody move!"

The seatbelt suddenly clicked free, and Steve groped Danny's hand before finding the badge on his belt. The officer was saying something into his radio about a "711." Steve grabbed the handle and climbed out of the car.

"Sir, please stay in the—"

"We're Five-0. Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, Detective Sergeant Danny Williams. Thank you, officer," Steve said, brushing past toward the incident command vehicle.

Danny was jogging to keep up as Steve made a beeline toward Chin and Kono's vehicle.

"They did the raid without us! Can you believe it, Danno? Without us!"

Danny looked at Steve, who was wearing the most impressive 'aneurysm face' he had yet seen. Then he glanced back to see the HPD officer, still staring after them with a look of scandalized shock.

"What the hell are you doing, Steven? You're not the only person who is good at shooting people here. I'm sure Chin and Kono are handling the drug bust just fine. Don't you think that maybe—just maybe—we have a little something else to worry about? Like that officer back there who looks like he's about to write us up for a 711?"

Steve barreled onward, oblivious to Danny's worried glances at the officer still standing by Danny's car, busily scribbling out what looked like a ticket of some sort.

"A 711? What? Like the place where you get slurpees? You want to get slurpees right now, Danno? You should have had those ready for the stake-out. We're on a raid right now!"

"Steven, look around you," Danny yelled, jumping in front of Steve and jabbing a finger into his chest.

"We. Are not. On. A raid," he said, emphasizing his words with pointed jabs.

"Chin and Kono are on a raid. You and I are—were—staking out. Right now, we are getting written up by that lovely officer over there for a 711."

Steve attempted to maneuver around Danny, intent upon joining whatever kind of shooting and chasing operation was going on, but Danny reached up and grabbed Steve's shoulders, turning him around to face the car, where the officer was still writing up the ticket.

"What's he writing a ticket for?," Steve asked, confused upon seeing the officer busily filling out some kind of form. "We're not illegally parked or anything."

"A 711!," Danny bellowed.

"Slurpees—," Steve began.

"Not slurpees, Steve! It's the code for disorderly conduct—sex in a public place!"

Steve looked around wildly.

"Sex? Who was having sex? We would have noticed!"

Danny covered his face with his hands and moaned.

"He walked up to us while I was trying to undo your seatbelt so you wouldn't destroy my car! What do you think that looked like, Steven? I will bet you a month's worth of lunches that he's ticketing us for sex in a public place right now. And then he is going to tell all of HPD that he found the detective giving his commander a blow job on a stake out!," Danny shouted, arms flying like windmills as he wildly gesticulated.

Steve stared at him for a second, then turned around and continued his march toward the incident command post for the raid. He could see Chin and Kono now.

"Steven! We need to go deal with that guy—maybe you can go do a little macho intimidation thing. Like flex your muscles and threaten to beat him up or whatever super SEALs do," Danny called as he trailed after Steve, tugging on his partner's arm to try to get him to turn around.

"You're worried about whether HPD thinks we're giving each other blow jobs? We just missed a raid, Danno! We have much bigger things to worry about, first and foremost figuring out why the hell Chin started the damn thing without us!"

Danny stopped in his tracks and stared after Steve for a good fifteen seconds, jaw gaping. He turned to watch the officer walk toward the area where the HPD cruisers were staged, smirking as he hailed the other officers. Danny shook his head and went after Steve, muttering under his breath about "Army officers stupider than the animals they're named for" the whole way.

(cut)

"I heard an interesting little tidbit from an HPD officer during the debriefing," Chin said, lifting the beer to his mouth and taking a sip.

Danny, who was sitting on the bar stool next to Chin, let out a strangled squawk and laid his head on the bar.

"I'm going to need 2—no, make that 3 more of those shots," Danny called to the bartender.

"Are you going to use those to wash something out of your mouth, Danny?," Kono asked, winking at Lori.

Chin guffawed next to a beet-red Danny, almost choking on his beer.

"It's a good thing you had an upstanding member of law enforcement like myself to vouch for you and get that ticket revoked," Lori said.

Danny quickly downed two of the shots the bartender had put in front of him, then slid the other down the bar to Steve.

"The only thing I have to say about this is that Steve owes me a month's worth of lunches, because I tried to get him to handle that officer right away, but no, Mr. Army needs to get in his daily 'shots fired' quota."

Danny would have fallen off his bar stool imitating Steve shooting things if the subject of his impression had not grabbed his arm and seated him firmly back on his stool.

"Take it easy on the drinks there, Danny," Chin said, looking mildly concerned as Steve stabilized Danny in his seat.

"Nah," Steve said, shoving another shot in front of his partner. "It will help him forget his humiliation. I mean, getting ticketed for performing sexual activities in public isn't the worst part—it's that he was the blower, not the blowed."

A few seats down, Kono and Lori were doubled over with laughter.

Between gasps, Lori got out, "Well, at least we know who's wearing that pants in that relationship."

"Hey!," Danny said, grabbing onto Steve's shoulder for support as he hauled himself upwards on his stool.

"I will have you know," he said, pointing about three feet to the left of where Kono and Lori were sitting as he addressed the pair.

"I will have you know that Steven and I are engaged in an equal opportunities partnership. Nobody is wearing any pants in our relationship," he slurred before he downed another shot and summarily passing out on the bar.

All of Five-0 was hooting with laughter. Steve had consumed enough beers that he looked down at himself, then glanced over Danny's ass, too. He was pretty sure that they both had pants on. Although even though Danny had pants on, he still had a good view of Danny's very well-defined—

"No pants, Steve? Really?," Chin asked, eyes twinkling.

Steve sighed and shook his head at Danny, who was now snoring slightly.

"I would like to commemorate what is about to be a classic Five-0 moment we will all remember and treasure forever," Steve said, standing up from his stool and raising his glass.

As Kono walked over to join in the toast, Steve grabbed her with one arm and nabbed Chin in the other. Lori watched bewildered as he dragged the struggling pair out the door onto the beach and dumped them into the ocean.

"That," Steve lectured his soaked team members, "is what you get for going on raids without your commander!"

With that, he went back into the bar, slung a still-passed out Danny over his shoulder fireman-style, and walked back to his house to tuck his saturated partner into bed.


	4. Chapter 4

_-With that, Steve went back into the bar, slung a still-passed out Danny over his shoulder fireman-style, and walked back to his house to tuck his saturated partner into bed.-_

Hoots and catcalls from the Five-0 team followed Steve as he carried Danny out the door. Steve grinned and flashed a choice hand gesture at the hecklers. Danny merely drooled on Steve's shoulder, as if in acknowledgement of his pathetic state.

The walk back to Steve's house was short. It was dark outside, and the only sound on the road other than Steve's footsteps was the buzzing of insects in the bushes. No cars drove by, which was probably a good thing considering the picture Steve made walking along the side of the road with Danny on his back. Steve was going to give Danny so much shit about this tomorrow morning—only five shots, and Danny needed a big, strong man to carry him home. Maybe he could get Danny to cook breakfast tomorrow as compensation. Or maybe not. That seemed like a great way to turn his house into a smoking ruin.

Steve turned onto the street he lived on. He adjusted his grip on Danny, sliding his hand further up Danny's thigh to lift his partner and center his weight on his back. Danny's warm body draped over his shoulders was surprisingly pleasant. His breath whuffled just below Steve's ear, each exhalation warming Steve's neck slightly.

Danny sighed and murmured sleepily, "That's nice."

Steve tensed as he realized his thumb had been tracing circles on Danny's leg. Danny nuzzled his head against Steve's shoulder and mumbled something.

"What did you say, Danno?," Steve asked, voice cracking slightly.

"Why'd you stop?"

Steve relaxed, and his hand went back to its caresses. It felt surprisingly good—Danny's thigh was warm and firm under his touch. They remained that way for the rest of the walk, Danny's head snuggled into the crook of Steve's neck, and Steve's hand moving slowly on Danny's thigh.

When he reached his front door, Steve shifted Danny onto one shoulder. Reaching behind his head, he covered Danny's back with his arm to hold him in place and used the other to open the door and maneuver the two of them inside.

"Danno, are you awake?"

Danny just snuggled closer. Who would have thought prickly Danny would be a cuddler? Steve grinned and walked into the living room. As he leaned down to set Danny on the couch, the walls shifted around him. Losing his balance—he definitely should not have had those last three shots Danny had bought for him—he felt Danny fall off of his back onto the couch. Steve toppled after his partner, landing softly on the couch, his head on Danny's chest and his body tucked neatly into his partner's side. Steve considered getting up, but as he watched the room spinning above him, he decided it might be a better idea to stay where he was until he sobered up a little bit.

"You mind if I lay here for a minute or two, Danno?"

Steve took the loud snore Danny emitted as a yes. He settled his head on Danny's bicep. The ceiling he stared up at was still spinning, making him dizzy and slightly nauseous. Steve shut his eyes and found his thoughts drifting toward Danny's warmth beside him. As if aware of Steve's mental scrutiny of him, Danny shrugged slightly and repositioned himself. Steve grunted as Danny's arm came crashing down on his still-bruised torso, sliding down to locking around Steve's waist and pulling his body flush with Danny's. Steve opened his eyes to sneak a quick glance at his partner. He watched as Danny nestled his head against his shoulder, tucking into the crook of his neck.

Steve frowned at the light tingling sensation he felt emanating from where Danny's cheek touched his neck. Danny's breaths seeped through his shirt and sent shivers down his body. All the way down his body. Steve shifted uncomfortably. His arousal would be obvious if Danny were to wake up. It had been awhile since he had seen Catherine; probably a few months, now that he thought about it. Catherine was not something he had been thinking about recently.

He tried opening his eyes again, and got a good view of the top of Danny's head. Danny's hair had always fascinated him. Did he have to use gel or something to slick it back? Steve sniffed. Danny's head smelled like shampoo, but he probably was not the best person to identify different hair products by scent. He reached up and poked at Danny's head, but missed and ended up poking the back of the couch. Correcting his somewhat-drunk aim, he succeeded in poking his partner's hair on his second attempt. It felt soft enough, not super stiff or greasy like women he had dated who put stuff in their hair. He ran his hand through Danny's hair. Smiling slightly, his partner snuggled closer to him. Steve stilled, but Danny remained completely passed out. His hand started running through Danny's hair again, as if on its own volition.

He would have to ask Danny in the morning how he managed to slick it back without hair gel. Drunk Steve found himself very impressed by the feat. Danny was an impressive man. With that thought, he smiled and shut his eyes again. A few minutes later, his breathing evened out and his hand slowed. Steve had fallen asleep tucked against Danny's chest, his partner snuggled up under his chin and their legs intertwined.

(cut)

The pain was unbearable. Moaning, Danny clutched one hand to his tender head as the other searched for something to use as a shield against the unbearable light that was assaulting his eyes. His blind groping finally produced a magazine from the coffee table. Opening it up, he draped it over his face and focused upon returning to the sweet oblivion of sleep.

But now that the light was dealt with, loud clanging noises from the kitchen made his head feel like it was about to split in half. Danny let out another pathetic moan and adjusted the pillow behind his head to cover his ears and muffle the cacophony. Smiling contentedly, he took a deep breath and waited for sleep to overtake him.

Danny suddenly found himself gagging. He ran through the kitchen, past Steve—who was cooking a very aromatic breakfast of bacon and pancakes—into the bathroom, where he puked his guts out into the toilet. Breathing heavily as he paid homage to the porcelain god, the scent of bacon permeated his senses again.

"Dear God," he muttered, opening the window and then frantically cramming towels around the crack under the door to act as a smoke barrier. He had heard it kept out smoke from house fires—it must work for bacon fumes, too.

A sharp knocking on the bathroom door woke Danny up an indeterminate amount of time later.

"You okay in there, Danno? I saved some breakfast for—"

Danny started retching into the toilet again at the word 'breakfast.' He was faintly aware of Steve muttering something before walking away. Danny sighed and settled his head back against the cool, wonderful rim of the toilet.

When Steve opened the bathroom door a few minutes later, he worked very hard not to laugh at the scene in front of him. Poor Danny was out like a light bulb, his head practically submerged in the toilet. He would definitely not be making it into work today. Good thing it was Danny's day off. Steve sat down next to his partner and laid a hand on his nape.

"Okay, Danno. I got you some aspirin and a glass of water here. Why don't you take this, and then we'll get you up to bed, okay?"

Danny mumbled his displeasure with that idea.

"Aw, come on, babe. At least take the aspirin, Danno. It'll make you feel better. I promise," Steve said, grabbing Danny's hand and putting the pills in it.

When Danny did not move, he took the pills back and stuck them in Danny's mouth himself.

"Ugh gross you—"

Steve shoved the glass of water in front of Danny's face, only to have it snatched away and downed in a single gulp. Before Danny had time to recover, Steve slipped his left arm under Danny's knees and lowered his right hand to support his partner's back. He gently pulled Danny into his chest and stood up, stepping over a wad of towels—how did those get on the floor?—and walking to his bedroom, where he laid Danny down on his bed. Once he had tucked Danny in, he pulled all of the shades shut and walked to the door.

"You stay here and work on the recovery, okay Danno?," he said, sniggering as Danny responded with a noise that was a weird hybrid between a moan and a snore. He was tempted to stay and watch Danny for a few more minutes, but he staged a quick exit from his bedroom when his phone started ringing loudly.

"McGarrett."

"Hey, boss. I got into headquarters a little early, and there was a nice surprise from the governor. I'll give you one guess what it is."

"Papework?," Steve asked, stomach sinking.

Kono laughed.

"Mounds and mounds of it. I thought maybe since you and Danny were too busy to help with the raid, you guys might be willing to pull your weight by doing some of this."

Steve groaned.

"There's no way we're going to get Danny in there. He's, uh, indisposed after last night."

"Well, then, I guess it's you and me, boss. Lori and Chin are also out today. And you had better hurry in, because I am not going to start on this until you are seated next to me, pen in hand."

"On my way," Steve said, already jogging downstairs to his car.

Kono was busily filling out paperwork when Steve got to the office.

"I thought you said you weren't going to start without me," he said, pulling up a chair beside hers and shuffling through papers, looking for something that would be easy to fill out.

Kono raised her eyebrows at Steve as he rifled through papers.

"I already pulled out all of the easiest forms for myself. Your pile is the one over there," Kono said, pointing to a particularly nasty-looking stack of paperwork.

"Really, Kono?"

"Hey, Boss! Not my fault you were too busy steaming it up at your stakeout last night to help your team with the Hawaii's biggest drug bust in ten years. This is the least you can do!"

Steve sighed and pulled the stack of papers Kono had indicated toward him.

"So why do we have to do all of this, anyways? Did the governor include an explanation or anything?"

Kono shrugged.

"It looks like most of it is for Customs and HPD."

"Must be chain of evidence stuff or something," Steve said. "This is totally Danny's job, since he's a cop and all. In his words, my job is to 'just shoot people.'"

"Yeah, how's he doing?"

Steve rolled his eyes.

"What a lightweight. A few shots, and I have to carry the man home and tuck him into bed."

Kono grinned at Steve.

"Awww, you know you like being the big, strong man."

Steve grinned back.

"Poor Danno. I'm not sure he really appreciated that I got up early to make him a good, healthy breakfast to start his day. Poor guy was puking his guts out into the toilet when I left."

The sounds of Kono's writing stopped.

"You left him like that, Steve?"

"Oh, well, no. I didn't."

The scratching of Kono's pen started up again. They wrote in silence for a few minutes.

"I hope he doesn't puke all over your bed."

"I never said he was in—," Steve started, then stopped. "I'm going to kill him if he does."

Steve and Kono worked doggedly up until lunch. Kono finished her pile and ran out to get sandwiches, leaving Steve with a stack of papers that did not seem any smaller than when he had first started.

He set down his pen and scrubbed his eyes. Steve was considering napping under the table when his phone went off. He looked at his screen and saw Danny's name on it.

"Morning, sleepyhead. Have you managed to move your lazy ass out of my bed yet?"

"Yup. I'm sitting on your back porch, enjoying the lovely weather, and drinking some of that fresh-squeezed orange juice you made this morning. What are you up to, Steven?"

Steve pulled the phone away from his ear as a miraculously-recovered Danny prattled on about how he was "using the sunny weather to work on his tan." Glaring at his phone, he hung up and began scribbling furiously on the form in front of him.

Kono took pity on him when she returned with the sandwiches. She grabbed a paper from Steve's pile and began filling it out between bites of her sandwich.

"What are you up to after this, Boss?"

"I dunno. Danny just called me and said he is sitting on my porch drinking my juice and enjoying the sun. He doesn't even like juice or sun."

"Well, there's always the chance he'll fall asleep and get a sunburn or something."

"Haha. Yeah. He probably forgot sunscreen, too. I'll have to give him a hearty pat on the back when I get back."

Kono looked up from her paperwork and grinned evilly.

"We should prank him."

"What are you thinking?"

"Well, Chin and I were reminiscing last night after you dunked us, and the topic of water wars came up…."

"Like, water balloon fights?," Steve asked.

"Ha. Water balloons. Really? I'm talking about Super Soaker Hydro Cannons."

Steve glanced up at Kono blankly, then returned to his paperwork.

"Squirt guns. Big ones. And I looked around in my garage last night. Guess what I found?"

At the word "squirt guns," Steve's head snapped up and any pretense of work stopped.

"How many?"

"Two."

"So you're suggesting that we chase Danny around with water guns and shoot him?"

"Yup."

"Brilliant. Help me finish all of this up, and I'll give you the first shot at him."

"Done!," Kono said, moving into a chair next to Steve and digging in.

(cut)

"ARGH!," Danny screamed, falling out of the chair he had been laying in and writhing on the ground. Furiously wiping his eyes, he sat up and looked up at the sky. There was not a cloud in sight, but he was covered in water, and there was definitely a puddle under his chair.

He stood up and went out into the backyard. He had gone no more than twenty steps when water blasted the back of his head. Whipping around, he saw someone disappearing around the side of the house.

"Hey! Hey you! Get back over here!," Danny yelled, running after the perpetrator.

A blast of water hit him from behind. There were at least two of them. Diverting, he turned and ran to the backdoor, seeking shelter in the house. It was locked. He had definitely left it open when he came out. Water blasted him from both sides. He turned to the left to see a foot flash as one of his attackers ducked behind the side of the house.

Spluttering and looking like a wet, angry cat, Danny considered his options. It was clear that he was locked out of the house. Unfortunately—or fortunately—he had left his cell phone inside, so it was not like he could call Steve to back him up. He scanned the backyard. A plastic table and the hose coiled up against the back of the house caught his eye. Danny dragged the table over to the hose, tipped it over, and hunkered down behind it. Chuckling, Danny turned on the hose and prepared for battle. He had not been amused when the attack had roused him from a peaceful nap, but he was looking forward to beating the neighbor kids' asses.

Danny was waiting when a face peered around the corner of the house a few minutes later.

"HA!," he screamed, pointing the hose in that direction and pressurizing it with his thumb to release a powerful jet of freezing cold water. Unfortunately, the other gunman had snuck up behind him, and as he was hosing down the first attacker, he felt another jet of water at his back. He whipped the hose around and unleashed it upon the backside attacker. The backside attacker who was not one of the neighborhood kids. It was Kono. Which meant that attacker number one was none other than Steve McGarrett.

"Oh, you are going to DIE," he yelled.

Dropping the hose, he turned and saw Steve running toward him at full speed. Danny ducked, and Steve's momentum propelled him over Danny and into Kono. Danny sprang up and joined the dog pile, pinning his hysterically laughing partners to the ground.

"You think that was funny?," he nearly shrieked. "Disturbing a hardworking detective during his afternoon thinking session?"

Steve and Kono were now howling with laughter. Keeping a knee on each perpetrator, Danny reached over to grab the hose that was within arm's reach. Kono bucked under him and wiggled her way out. Steve tried to follow, but Danny managed to keep him pinned.

Waving, Kono said, "Have fun, boys," and disappeared around the corner.

"What? Where are you going? I thought we were in this together, Kono. Traitor!," Steve yelled after her.

Her laughter rang out in response, fading as she got farther away. Steve looked back at Danny, and found himself blasted in the face by the hose. Danny was laughing maniacally, sitting on his lower back with a knee planted in the ground on either side of him.

"Take that!"

Squirming, Steve tried to twist out of Danny's control. The only thing he managed to do was flip onto his back, which made the whole hose-in-the-face thing even worse. Within seconds, he was completely soaked.

"Okay, okay, Enough, Danno! I give up," Steve cried, raising his hands above his head in surender.

Their hips rubbed together as Danny slid up and grabbed Steve's wrists, securing them over his head. Danny's lips were almost touching his. At this point, Steve forgot about the hose running somewhere near his head. He forgot about Kono abandoning him. He forgot about paperwork, Five-0, and missed raids. If asked, he would have forgotten his name, too.

"I have to pick up Grace for dinner in an hour, and I have her all of tomorrow, too. But do not think that this means there will not be payback. Revenge is coming, Steven. Prepare yourself," Danny said, water droplets falling from his face to Steve's.

Steve licked his lips. He could not think of anything to say. Suddenly, Danny was standing up and walking away, leaving Steve lying in his backyard, soaked and speechless.


	5. Chapter 5

_-Steve licked his lips. He could not think of anything to say. Suddenly, Danny was standing up and walking away, leaving Steve laying in his backyard, soaked and speechless.-_

Steve was panting slightly as he watched Danny saunter off. He had no idea how long he lay there in his backyard, staring at the spot where Danny had disappeared and trying to figure out what had just happened. His head was buzzing and his skin was tingling and his stomach felt like it could not decide whether to do cartwheels or vomit.

It was more than a few minutes before he managed to clear the buzzing in his head and heave himself up into a sitting position. When he looked down at his water-soaked lap, he groaned. His wet pants clung tightly to the very obvious erection beneath them. He really hoped Danny had not noticed it. It would be awkward to explain. Apparently he really needed to get laid? Steve flopped back down to the ground again and waited a few minutes, then sat up again and studied his lap. Nope, still there.

His hand was drifting south when the sound of a car driving by the front of his house pulled him from his reverie. Realizing it would probably be better to take care of himself somewhere other than in the middle of his backyard, Steve got up and headed inside. He stripped off his wet clothes impatiently as he hurried to his room. It was cool and dark. He sat down on the edge and lightly stroked his erection. After a few minutes he exhaled and leaned back, laying himself out fully on the bed. Then he spread his legs slightly and used his unoccupied hand to gently play with his testicles. As he continued to touch himself, his breathing accelerated and his hips pumped upwards into his hand, seeking more friction. Steve flipped over, and with his hand still wrapped around the base of his erection, he began to thrust against the bed sheets underneath him. The rough texture of the sheets rubbing the tip of his penis made him groan. Steve continued to move his hips in a slow and steady rhythm. But when he lowered his head and buried it in the pillow—the pillow that Danny had slept on that morning—his partner's scent assuaged him. He barely managed two more erratic thrusts before he came hard onto the sheets beneath him with a muffled moan that sounded suspiciously like "Danno."

(cut)

"What do we know?"

Danny looked up to see an unusually grim Steve prowling toward him. Breaking off from the HPD officer he had been talking to, Danny led Steve toward the body.

"It looks like a kidnapping, right? It's sixteen kids, three adults from South Shore Children's Academy. They were on a field trip, someone comes and takes the whole bus."

Danny could feel Steve studying him, but when he glanced at his partner, Steve quickly looked away.

"Have the parents been notified?"

"Kono's on her way to the school right now to meet them and prepare for a ransom call," Danny said as they stopped in front of Chin, who was examining the body.

Steve looked down at the body, then up at Chin, trying not to get distracted by Danny's presence next to him.

"Who's the vic, Chin?"

"Jay Katsu, driver of the bus. Still waiting on Max, but the cause of death appears to be three gunshots to the chest, close range."

Steve followed Danny as he headed toward the two cars nearby.

"Here's what I think. Alright. Guy gets out of the bus to see what's going on, comes over here. Boom. He's popped by one of the kidnappers," Danny said.

He paused and looked at Steve when he finished, but his partner was now completely focused on the scene in front of him. Brushing by Danny, he frowned and bent over to examine the two cars.

"Wait a minute," Steve said as Lori walked up and joined the group.

"What are you thinking?," Chin asked Steve.

"This accident was staged," Steve said, turning back to the cars. "There's no skid marks," he pointed to the ground, "neither of the airbags have been deployed," Steve indicated the inside of the cars, "there's minimal damage."

He nodded at a slightly-dented bumper, then returned to his place beside Danny.

"Who do these cars belong to?," Danny asked Chin.

"Well, HPD ran the plates. Turns out both vehicles were reported stolen last night."

"I just spoke to the witness who called 911. She came on the accident about twenty minutes ago. Driver was already dead," Lori chimed in.

"Did she see a school bus?," Danny asked Lori.

"Yeah, she reported seeing one traveling at high speeds heading south."

Chin raised his eyebrows.

"Well, if they've reached the HV, they could be anywhere on the island."

"Okay, we need the cell numbers of all the people on that bus. Pinging their phones is going to be the best chance of locating them," Steve said to Chin. "Can you and Lori finish up with everything here? I'm going to head over to the school and see what Kono is up to."

Chin nodded and walked back to the body. Lori gave Steve a mock salute and headed over to where Max had just pulled up on the scene. Danny looked at Steve, then sprinted towards his car.

"Hey, what are you doing?," Steve yelled after his fleeing partner.

"Driving," Danny yelled back over his shoulder as he opened the car door and practically launched himself into the driver's seat.

Danny was still grinning gleefully while Steve buckled into the passenger's seat. Trying to distance himself slightly—Danny's grin was sending strange tingles through him—Steve stared out the window as Danny drove along. He was staring out the window so intently that he did not see Danny reaching for him until it was too late. A hand grabbed his thigh inches away from his cock.

"What the—," Steve choked out.

"Sorry. Sorry. Can you hand me my sunglasses? They should be in that side pouch."

Steve found the desired sunglasses and handed them to Danny, trying to ignore the shiver that ran up his arm when their fingers brushed.

His breathing was just steadying out when Danny looked at him and said, "How did it feel to get topped by a mainlander in a water war, Steven?"

Steve sputtered for a few seconds before giving up hope for any type of coherent response on his part. He returned to staring out the window, irrationally hoping his partner would let it go and never say the word "topped" again.

"You never saw that hose coming!," Danny crowed from the driver's seat, prattling on about his "tremendous victory" against "insurmountable odds."

It was too much for Steve's already-taxed brain. He cast around desperately for a new conversation topic.

"Grace!," he shouted from the passenger seat.

Danny stopped his victory speech and stared at Steve.

"How was your time with Grace?," Steve clarified.

When Danny started up about how Kamekona had turned Grace onto shrimp sno-cones, Steve breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he would make it through this car ride after all. After Danny had exhausted his supply of Grace stories, they fell into a comfortable silence. Steve found himself studying his partner as he drove. Danny was a very focused driver. He never took his eyes off the road and always kept both hands on the wheel. After a careful study, Steve decided that he liked Danny's hands. They would feel amazing on his—

They pulled up at the school not a moment too soon. Grabbing the door handle, Steve was out of the car before Danny had fully stopped it.

"I'm going to, ah, go check out…check some stuff with Kono…."

He gestured vaguely with his hand and hightailed it away from the car, leaving Danny inside the car with a slightly mystified expression on his face. It took Steve almost a minute of walking before he realized that he was heading in the opposite direction of the school. Turning around, he headed back toward the school to find Kono. He caught her just as she finished addressing the parents.

Pulling her aside, he asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah. Anything I can tell them?"

"No, not yet. Listen, I need you to conduct a background on every single one of these parents."

"What, you think it could be about one of them?"

"Oh no. It could be about all of them. This isn't a coincidence that these guys hijacked a bus from a high-price private school. These kids—they were targeted. And we need to find out why. Alright?"

Steve looked away from Kono and scanned the crowd for any particularly suspicious-looking parents, but something else caught his eye. Danny was staring out of a classroom window, forearms crossed as he leaned on the sill in front of him. And then the thing that Steve had been trying to avoid all day happened—their gazes locked together. His breath hitched. Steve desperately tried to look away, but Danny chose that moment to smile at him. It was not just Danny smiling. It was Danny smiling—at him. It only lasted a second before Danny turned away from the window and started talking to someone in the room.

It was at this point that Steve realized that he was mooning over his partner. There was a hell of a lot more going on here than just needing to get laid. Sexual frustration did not make your heart jump at the smallest smile and your head spin at the lightest touch. Granted, Steve was not going to say no if Danny wanted to hop into bed with him; but he doubted his partner reciprocated his feelings. The man had been married—he even had a kid. Danny did not need this bizarre man-crush Steve was having messing up his life right now. And if he said anything about it to Danny, it would just put an awkward strain on their partnership. It was making him feel weird right now just thinking about it. Steve had never felt this way about another man before; actually he had not really felt this way about anyone before, but that was beside the point. This was something better kept to himself for now. Danny did not need to be brought into the strange mess going on in his head right. Who knew, maybe it would be a phase that would blow over with time. It was best to just act normal. Poke and prod Danny into a couple arguments (and try not to show how much they turned him on), go out for drinks (but try not to end up carrying Danny home and snuggling with him afterward), and keep up the manly-bonding things they did (but try not to ogle Danny's abs when they worked out together). Yes, this was a good plan. Steve's musings—shit, had he been staring at Danny through the window this whole time?—were interrupted by Chin rushing over to him.

"Steve, we IDed Ken Nakoa as the guy who stole the cars that were used to stage that accident. HPD just sent me the tracking data now," Chin said, holding up a tablet. "Looks like he's on the move."

Steve took the tablet from Chin and looked around for Danny's car. Danny had his turn to drive on the way over this morning. It was totally Steve's turn to drive, and there was no way he was a missing a hot pursuit. Chin grinned and pointed at the Camaro across the schoolyard.

"You better hurry, Steve. Danny was just behind me—"

Steve took off at a run before Chin could finish his sentence. He was settling himself into the driver's seat when he heard a strangled shout from outside the vehicle. Waving the tablet in the air, he pointed at the passenger's seat.

"You okay navigating, Danno?"

They were barely out of the school's driveway before it became evident that Danny was not okay navigating. Steve was pretty sure the heated glances Danny was throwing his way every few minutes were supposed to make him feel remorseful instead of aroused. And the gasps and squeaks that Danny emitted whenever he took a turn a fast turn or slammed on the brakes did not help his concentration. Steve was considering that it might be better to let Danny drive in the future when they turned onto a muddy back road.

"Okay, bing, I got him. It's a half-mile up the road," Danny said, breaking the silence that had been simmering since he got into the car.

"Alright, which one of those trucks is he in?," Steve asked.

"How do I know?," Danny exclaimed, outraged.

"What do you mean 'How do I know?' You've got the thing," Steve said innocently.

Steve took his eyes off of the road to look at his partner. That earned him Danny's get-your-eyes-back-on-the-road glare.

"I've got a blinking red dot. That's all I got, see?," Danny said, angling the screen toward Steve. "So if you see anything blinking red, go ahead and pull it over."

Out of the corner of his eye Steve saw Danny look determinedly out the windshield in front of him, probably preparing himself to ignore future idiotic comments from his partner.

"Why are you angry?," Steve asked.

Danny kept his eyes pinned to the windshield in front of him.

"I'm not angry."

And the argument was off and running. It was like foreplay.

"Why would you be angry right now? We're trying to catch—"

"If you continue, I'm going to get angry," Danny said, staring fixedly at the truck in front of them.

Danny was spared (and Steve was denied) any further argument as they pulled alongside the first truck.

"Okay, Nakoa's gotta be in one of these trucks," Steve said, eyes back on the road. "How about this one?"

Steve looked over at Danny who looked over at the driver of the truck.

"No," Danny said.

They pulled up to the next truck. Why were there so many trucks on a muddy back road, anyways?

"Is that him?," Steve asked, his eyes drawn to Danny again as his partner checked out the driver.

"Not unless he's wearing a Willie Nelson costume," Danny replied.

Steve quickly focused on the road when Danny turned back from the window and looked at the tablet in front of him.

"This has got to be it."

"I hope this truck has good brakes," Steve said, speeding up to pass the truck.

He saw Danny stiffen beside him, and suddenly felt his partner's hand clutching his knee.

"Why?," Danny said, tightening his hand on Steve's knee. "Why? Why? Why do you—"

Danny squinched his eyes shut and clutched Steve's knee like a lifeline as his partner cranked the wheel to the left, spinning the car directly into the track of the speeding truck.

(cut)

"Are you sure you didn't pee your pants, Danno? The passenger seat feels a little wet," Steve said.

They were driving to meet the rest of the team at a nearby bar, having somehow gotten stuck finishing up paperwork when the rest of the Five-0 team begged off after recovering the kids. Chin driving a giant bulldozer during the rescue had been badass enough for Steve to let him get away with it.

"Very funny, Steven," Danny replied, eyes firmly glued to the road and hands fixed on the wheel.

Steve was still chortling when his cell phone started ringing.

"McGarrett."

There was a pause as Steve listened to the person on the other end. Then he turned to look at Danny.

"They want to go to a dance club," he said with a neutral expression on his face, closely watching to see Danny's reaction to the news.

Danny's eyebrows flew up—but of course his eyes remained fixed on the road.

"Like, a club where you dance?," he asked Steve.

Steve relayed this message to Kono, who was on the other line.

"Danny wants to know if a dance club is 'a club where you dance.'"

He laughed at Kono's response.

"Yes, Danno. They want to go to a club where you dance. Apparently it's new, and Kono and Lori want to check it out." Then he added, "Max is going."

"Max is going to dance?," Danny asked. "Okay, I'm in."

"Yeah, it sounds like we're in, Kono. Oh, absolutely. Of course Danny will be dancing!," he said into the phone and then hung up.

"What do you mean 'of course I'll be dancing?'," Danny asked.

"Well, you can't go to a dance club and just stand there. I'm sure you've got some moves," Steve said encouragingly. "Turn here. Kono said it was a block down on the right."

A very drunk Kono greeted them when they walked into the club.

"Boss-man! Daniel!," she exclaimed, pulling them both into a sloppy hug. "You guys got to get caught up!"

Danny nodded and accepted the shots Kono offered to him and Steve.

"Apparently. How long have you guys been here anyways?"

Kono shoved more shots at Steve and Danny. Looking behind her, Danny saw a table with at least a dozen shot glasses—all full. He had hardly finished putting back the shot in his hand when Kono replaced it with another full one.

"We've been here an hour. Lori and Max are already on the dance floor. Hurry up and finish your drinks so we can get out there. Max has the wildest moves!"

Danny turned to see Steve looking at him with a horrified expression that mirrored his thoughts on the subject.

"We're going to need a lot more alcohol than this if we're going to be watching that," Steve said.

"No, like he's really good!," Kono drunkenly assured them.

Shaking their heads, Steve and Danny downed the last of the shots on the table and then followed her out onto the packed dance floor. Kono stopped abruptly halfway through the crowd.

"They were not like that when I left them!"

Max's 'awesome moves' appeared to have paid off. He and Lori were plastered together, grinding in time to the music.

"Are they making out?," Danny asked Steve in horrified fascination.

"I don't know. I can't look that closely," Steve said in a strangled whisper.

Despite the dim light, Danny noticed that Steve was blushing when he met Danny's eyes.

"I'm going to get some more drinks," Kono said and headed off in the direction of the bar.

"More?"

Danny was already feeling a buzz from the shots he had downed earlier. He should have eaten dinner before he came. He turned to find Steve staring at him. The blush had creeped down to his partner's neck now. He had a strange urge to touch it, and felt his fingers rising toward Steve's neck of their own accord. When his fingers made contact with the reddened skin, Steve started slightly.

"Sorry. You had something on your—"

Somebody bumped into him from behind, pushing him off balance. His arms landed on Steve's chest as he tried to catch himself. He felt Steve's hands on his hips as his partner steadied him. Steve was still looking at him, but his face was much closer now. Danny lowered his eyes and saw that the blush had progressed beneath the collar of Steve's shirt. At this point the music transitioned to a fast-paced song with a throbbing bass line. All around them, the crowd pressed in and jostled them, leaving them no room to separate. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny could see Max and Lori moving together in time to the beat. Kono was headed their through the crowd, but stopped short with a funny look on her face when she saw them. Making eye contact with Danny, she gave him a big thumbs up and then turned back in the direction she had come from. Danny looked back at Steve to see his partner was still watching him. His hands were still on Steve's chest, and he could still feel Steve's hands resting lightly on his hips. He quickly removed his hands, and he felt Steve do the same with his hands a second later. Danny had noticed a few male couples on his way onto the dance floor, so he figured this place was gay friendly. Not that he and Steve were gay, but it looked like they were going to be dancing with each other for now.

"Well, shall we?," Danny asked, and began dancing.

He was not sure, but he thought he heard Steve emit a strange groan, and then they were moving in time to the beat. For the first song, they managed to avoid bumping into each other, but they slowly moved closer. By the third song they were barely inches apart, brushing against each other with every beat. Danny saw Steve's lips move, but he could not hear what his partner said to him over the music. Steve repeated it, but Danny shook his head, not understanding. Reaching out, Steve grabbed Danny's shoulder and spun him around so that his back was to Steve. He felt Steve get jostled up against him, but Steve did not move back. Instead, a warm body pressed against him from behind, and hands settled lightly on his hips again. He felt Steve's stubble graze against his earlobe and his warm breath on his cheek.

"Are you okay with this, Danno? It's getting pretty crowded out here."

Danny nodded. He shivered as the stubble grazed his earlobe again. Steve pulled him even tighter, and they began to dance together. Danny rested his hands on top of Steve's and leaned back into his partner. His head was buzzing pleasantly and he could feel tingles running up and down his spine. Something brushed lightly against his neck. He turned his head slightly to make that spot more accessible. Reaching up with one hand, he threaded his fingers into Steve's hair and pressed Steve's lips back to his neck.

"Oh, God. That feels amazing," he whispered into Steve's ear.

He ran his tongue lightly over the shell of Steve's ear as he felt his partner apply gentle suction to his neck.

"Harder," he whispered.

When Steve nibbled his skin lightly with his teeth, Danny groaned and nipped his earlobe. He felt the grip on his hips tighten. Steve ground against him from behind, then froze.

"What's wrong?," Danny asked, breathing gently into Steve's ear and pushing his hips backward at his partner.

"Shit, Danny, I am so sorry," Steve said, pushing away from him. "Oh God."

He turned to see his partner looking around wildly. Then he started waving at the other side of the dance floor. Danny looked over to see Chin headed their way with Kono in tow. Despite the crowded dance floor, Steve kept a distance from Danny.

"Shit. Chin. I drank way too much. I gotta go. Can you get Danny home?," Steve asked.

Chin looked from Steve to Danny and then back at Steve.

"Yeah, I got this. Are you sure you don't need a ride, too, Steve?"

"No. No, I need to clear my head. Fresh air."

Danny watched Steve walk off into the crowd toward the exit. He did not look back, but Danny saw him briefly touch his ear before heading out the door. It was only when Steve disappeared from sight that he realized Chin was talking to him.

"…good for me to give you a ride home?"

"Yeah, yeah that's fine," Danny heard himself say.

_No point in being here without Steve._


	6. Chapter 6

Just a reminder for everyone: At this point in the series (S02E12 "Alaheo Pau'ole"), Danny is living at the Hilton Hotel because he put his business card in some kind of "Hilton Christmas raffle" and won a free room. Also, preparations for Chin's wedding are going on. Good fanfic fodder!

_- "Yeah, yeah that's fine," Danny heard himself say._

No point in being here without Steve. -

It was only when Danny walked out of his hotel room the next morning to find a sleeping Steve outside his door that the events from the night before fully hit him. It was not that he had forgotten them or tried to ignore them. As a matter of fact, Steve had been the first thing he had thought about when he had woken up an hour prior. But after laying in his bed and puzzling about the whole thing for nearly half an hour, he had come to the conclusion that Steve was a touchy drunk—and when he realized _who_ he was touching last night, he had freaked out. It left Danny with a surprisingly disappointed feeling, but he had avoided thinking too much about why he was disappointed. Until he found himself staring at Steve, curled up and snoring like a baby on the floor outside his door.

"Uh, Steve?," he asked, kneeling down to examine his partner more closely.

"Hey, Steve."

Danny reached out and gently shook his partner's shoulder. He felt Steve tense beneath his hand. Steve's eyes snapped open and locked on Danny's face confusedly for a minute before he relaxed again.

"Oh, it's you. Hey, Danno," he said sheepishly, avoiding eye contact as he raised himself up into a sitting position.

"Surprise!" Danny said dryly. "Did you expect someone else when you decided to spend the night outside my door?"

Steve opened his mouth and then closed it without saying anything. He took a deep breath and then looked Danny in the eye. They sat there in silence for a minute, just staring at each other.

"Uh, do you mind if I come in?"

Danny nodded and stood up, heading back into his room. Steve trailed along behind him and stopped just inside the door. He turned and shut it behind him. He stood there for a few seconds, staring at the door before facing Danny. Steve looked embarrassed, but his shoulders were squared determinedly.

"Danny. I want to apologize for what I did last night. It was completely out of line," he said, looking his partner directly in the eyes. "I won't do it again, and I really hope that you can forgive me."

Danny's eyebrows quirked up in surprise, but then settled back down into a frown.

"What specifically am I supposed to forgive?," Danny asked.

Steve stared at him for a moment before replying.

"Well, I groped you in the middle of a dance club. Friends don't usually do that to their friends—"

He trailed off as Danny's face moved much closer, just inches away from his own. His hand scrabbled against the door, searching for the doorknob so that he could put some space between himself and his partner. Then Danny's hand settled on top of his own, stilling its search.

"You know," Danny whispered, eyes fixed on Steve's lips. "I don't mind anything you did to me last night."

Then Danny looked up into Steve's eyes and said, "You want to be the kind of friends that grope each other?"

Steve stopped breathing. He wanted to nod, but he was not sure his head was working properly. Instead he licked his lips and mumbled something that might have been "hell yes" before pulling Danny into him. One hand rose to cup his partner's nape, guiding Danny's mouth to his own. The other hand circled across Danny's lower back to pull his partner's pelvis tight against him. When Danny's tongue tickled across his lips, he moaned. His moan was answered by a growl from Danny, and then Steve felt his back slam against the door as Danny's arms locked around his biceps and shoved him backward into it. Steve did not know how long they remained plastered together, kissing passionately. He desperately wanted to move his hands over Danny's body and learn his partner, but he was afraid the slightest movement would break the moment. Danny's lips formed a grin beneath his own. Opening his eyes, Steve found his partner staring at him with eyes crinkled in a smile.

Between kisses, Danny said, "I bet this was not how you imagined your apology ending, Steven."

"Mmmm," Steve replied.

And despite his best efforts not to, Steve snuck his hand under Danny's shirt and began to move up and down his partner's back, lightly caressing. Danny shivered under Steve's touch and gave a slow, gentle thrust against Steve. Reaching his hand and threading it into Steve's hair, Danny pulled Steve away from where he had been licking his neck and touched his forehead to Steve's. He watched Steve's face as he thrust against him with long, slow movements. When Steve's eyes began to flutter shut, he twisted his fingers slightly in Steve's hair and tilted his partner's head forward, whispering in his ear, "I want you to be looking at me when you come."

Steve leaned his head back against the door, staring down at Danny with half-lidded eyes. He began to move in time with Danny, but he could not maintain his partner's sedate pace. His breathing grew more erratic, as did his movements against Danny. When Danny leaned forward and nipped the side of his neck, Steve lost it. With Danny's eyes firmly locked on his, he felt himself let go. Danny followed him over the edge a few seconds later.

Finished, they remained where they were, breathing heavily. Steve's back was against the door, Danny slumped heavily against him. Danny's head rested on Steve's chest, and Steve's hand gently circled in the small of Danny's back. It was a few minutes before either of them moved. The refrigerator hummed in the background. People's voices from the hallway could be heard through the door. Sounds of the traffic outside drifted in through the open windows. Birds chirped and dogs barked.

"Hey, Danno, you still alive?"

Danny nodded against Steve's chest.

"Yeah. I don't really feel like moving though. You're a good pillow."

He felt Steve snort in indignation, so he felt obligated to add, "You're good for other stuff, too."

"Like what?," Steve asked insinuatingly.

"Chasing people. Shooting things. Driving unsafely."

Steve made to move Danny off of him.

"Okay, okay. I suppose you're an average kisser, too," Danny conceded.

Steve leaned down and stopped millimeters away from Danny's mouth. Parting his lips, he breathed lightly and then swiped his tongue across Danny's lips before delving in.

"Tell me when I've convinced you I'm better than average," Steve said between kisses.

Danny pulled away.

"Oh God, he's even competitive in the bedroom," he let out exasperatedly.

"Danny, I'm not—"

"You are, without a doubt, the most competitive human being I have ever encountered, Mr. Super SEAL," Danny said, cutting Steve off. "And don't even think about giving me the aneurysm face."

Danny's cell phone going off interrupted further argument. Reaching into his pocket, he answered it without checking who the caller was.

"Hello? What? You're here right now?"

A panicked expression crossed Danny's face, and he walked over to peer out the peephole in the door.

"Oh, yeah, I see you. Er, I don't see you, but uh. Um, let me, uh, just finish showering. I'm in the shower right now. I'm showering. I'll be out in like, 5 minutes. Just, hold on," Danny said, hanging up the phone and giving Steve a panicked look.

"Rachel's here with Grace," he whispered, pointing at the door.

Steve nodded and pointed at the balcony.

"I wasn't here. I bet you're glad I'm a super SEAL right now," he said and slipped outside just as Rachel knocked on the front door.

He belatedly remembered that he ought to have told Danny to change his pants. Hopefully Danny would come up with a good excuse for that wet spot….

(cut)

Fortunately Steve did not have to use the balcony when he visited Danny the next day with Joe.

"I didn't know Danny was living at the Hilton," Joe said as they walked up to Danny's room.

"Oh, he's kind of between places right now," Steve replied.

He had a good idea where this conversation was headed, and he definitely did not want to talk with Joe about Danny right now. He had not even talked with Danny about Danny. But Joe went there anyway.

"You got space."

Steve tried to keep a cool, collected look on his face.

"Yeah, we, uh, we tried that. It didn't work out so well."

But it would work out great now that they had resolved the whole sexual tension thing. Actually, it would work out _really_ great. Was it too soon to ask Danny to move in? Approaching Danny's door, Steve decided it might be too soon. Nerves washed over him in a rush. Forget about moving in together. He probably should have called or texted or sent a smoke signal or something instead of just climbing out Danny's balcony yesterday without a word. This was going to be the morning after—played out in front of Joe. Brilliant. Steeling himself, he knocked on the door.

"No thank you," Danny called out from inside.

Steve glanced behind him at Joe, then tried for a normal vibe when he responded.

"Come on, we're gonna be late for the tux fitting. Let's go! Chin's wedding. This Saturday. Remember?"

"No, no. Hey, we're busy, come back later please. Thanks!"

_We_? Who was Danny in there with? And _busy_? Was it the same kind of _busy_ Danny and Steve had been yesterday morning? Steve prickled with irritation.

"Sorry, you're busy? I can't come back later, Daniel. I'm the best man. I've got to make sure the groomsmen are in their monkey suits. Let's go! Open the door, come on."

Steve was about to do it himself when the door opened in front of him and Joe. Danny and Lori stood there. Handcuffed together. Steve could not stop his eyes from bugging out of his head as he stared at the cuffed couple. Before he could say anything, they turned away and headed back into the main room. Steve was right behind them, practically breathing down their necks. And Joe was following Steve at a more appropriate distance, eyebrows raised as he studied Steve's reaction to the whole situation.

When they got into the living room, Danny began to dig in the couch cushions, studiously avoiding eye contact with Steve. Joe hovered off to the side, eyebrows so high they were threatening to fly off of his face. Lori held up a hand in Steve's direction.

"Not what it looks like," Lori said.

Considering she was handcuffed to Danny, she did look surprisingly pissed off. Steve figured that if he were in her shoes, he would be having a hard time not using his cuffed hand as an excuse to grope his partner's ass.

"Okay," Steve said agreeably, feeling growing amusement at the equally irritated expressions on Lori and Danny's faces.

"If you want, we can come back later," Joe suggested.

Danny turned around and finally looked at his partner.

"No," Danny said, ignoring Joe and directing his words at Steve. "That's fine. Listen. Lori just came over to use the pool. That's all. Okay?"

Steve raised his eyebrows at Danny, trying hard to cover his smirk with a skeptical expression.

"Yeah, the, ah, the spa services actually," Lori clarified.

"Turns out the room comes with a complimentary spa service."

"You know, like a hot stone massage."

Lori waved her hand up and down her front.

"Yeah, I'm not a spa service kind of guy myself," Joe chimed in.

"You know, I'm not either, alright?," Danny said, grasping at the opportunity to cut back in. "But I didn't want to let it go to waste, so I called Lori, so she could use it."

Lori nodded.

"Yeah."

"And the, ah….," Steve started.

He had to raise a hand to his face, itching at his nose to cover the grin he was fighting back. It was a few seconds before he could finish his question without a tremor in his voice.

"…the handcuffs," he finished.

"Oh, ah, Danny was showing me the, ah, the 'Jersey slip'," Lori said, pointing at her fellow cuffee.

"Jersey slip," Danny said along with Lori.

"Jersey slip," Steve repeated, trying to put on his best aneurysm face even though he was seconds away from falling on the floor laughing.

Danny and Lori looked like they were about to shit bricks.

"The hoodrat cuff slip. Yeah, all the kids are doing it back East, so, I thought I'd show her," Danny said.

"And, um, we lost the key somewhere. I think in the couch."

"Couch?," Steve asked.

He knew he was just repeating everyone, but he did not know what else to say. He was torn between jealousy that Lori had apparently spent the morning in the company of Danny and amusement at Danny's discomfort.

"Yeah," Danny said, gesturing even more exaggeratedly than usual. "So I don't know, maybe you want to set up a search grid, call a canine unit…."

On the pretense of examining the opposite couch, Steve turned away and tried to regain a straight face. As he was throwing around random cushions, though, he found the Navy SEAL sweatshirt he had worn to the bar two nights ago tucked between two cushions. With a quick glance to make sure Joe had not seen his sweatshirt in Danny's couch, Steve leaned over the couch and hid the sweatshirt behind it. He turned back around to see Lori with her hand in Danny's pants. Jealousy flared back up.

"Wait. What's this? Really?," Lori said as she pulled the missing key from Danny's right pocket.

"Oh! Look at that."

Danny gave Steve a pleading look. Steve gave him an evil grin and stepped forward to take the key from Lori.

"You would think that we were making this story up," Danny said desperately as Steve uncuffed Lori.

Steve grabbed Danny's wrist and whispered, "You in cuffs is making me so hot right now," before tightening the cuff on Danny's wrist and stepping away.

Danny's eyes widened in surprise, then darted over toward Joe and Lori.

"Hey, hey, hey, that hurts. What are you doing?," he said for their benefit, but Steve had seen his eyes darken with arousal.

"I thought you were gonna show us the 'Jersey slip' from back East. Go ahead," Steve prodded.

"Do me a favor, please, would you?," Danny pled, holding out his cuffed wrist to Steve.

"That, or he could shoot 'em off you, like they do in Afghanistan," Joe added helpfully.

At this point, Joe was sitting on the couch and watching the scene in front of him with one foot propped up on his knee and his arm thrown over the back.

"Oh, that's funny Joe, I like that," Danny said. "Can I have the key please?"

Steve might have given the key back if he had not noticed the balcony out of the corner of his eye. A perfect revenge plan for yesterday's hasty balcony exit hit him.

"Look at that view."

"Oh, it's nice, right?," Danny said, obliviously following Steve to the balcony. "They give us a nice view here. They, um, they got an even better view in the master bedroom."

Steve's gaze locked on Danny at the words "master bedroom."

"Master bedroom?," he repeated, temporarily distracted from his plan. "How many rooms you got?"

He wanted to be with Danny in every one of them.

"Two," Danny and Lori said at the same time.

"And the master bathroom's ridiculous," Lori added.

Steve decided the master bathroom made it three rooms. And maybe they could count the shower as a separate room, too? Danny interrupted these thoughts, fed up with the key game.

"Can I have the key? Please?," he asked Steve.

"I mean, you told me you were staying at the Hilton, but this is—," Steve gestured around the room.

"This is the Ali'i Suite," Danny cut in.

This suite would definitely suit the plans he had for Danny later.

"How'd you swing this?," Steve asked.

"Well, like a genius, I put my card in a Christmas raffle downstairs at the Tropics Bar, and I got lucky. Do you got any more questions or can I have the key. PLEASE?"

No way was Steve letting Danny get that cuff off before he got to take advantage of it. So Steve dropped the key off the balcony. He pretended to fumble after it for a few seconds, then turned and looked at Danny.

"Oops."

"Why would you do that?," Danny asked.

Apparently he was not as into the handcuff thing as Steve was, because Steve was half-hard standing on the balcony and watching his partner. Well, he would show him the light when they got back from the tux fitting.

"Why wouldn't I?," Steve said. "Okay, we're gonna be late. Let's go get our monkey suits."

When they got out into the hallway, Steve fell behind Joe and walked next to Danny. Reaching down, he gave the cuff a tug, then moved his thumb up to gently rub over Danny's wrist before moving back up by Joe again.

"So how exactly do they shoot the cuffs off in Afghanistan again?," he asked Joe.

Danny groaned at Steve's question. But Joe's answer was not the end of it. Apparently his repertoire of de-cuffing techniques was not just limited to shooting them off. Danny shuddered when he heard Joe start talking about how to use a car to get rid of your handcuffs—that was definitely something Steve would do. And of course as Joe was elucidating on the car technique, they walked up to their ride. Even though he was behind Steve, Danny knew that his partner was examining Joe's car with a speculative look on his face.

"Do not even think about it, Steven."

Steve looked at him and wiggled his eyebrows.

"I knew you'd start to like the cuffs eventually, Danno."

It was at this point that it struck Danny why Steve had been acting so weird about the cuffs.

"Oh no no no we are not going to—," Danny started.

Steve raised his eyebrows in warning and directed a pointed look at Joe, who was unlocking the driver's door of the car. Danny glowered at Steve and hopped into the rear seat, knowing that he was doomed to be regaled with more stories of all the creative ways one could rid a fellow of unwanted handcuffs for the entire car ride. Danny had never looked forward to a tux fitting before, but as Joe prattled on about using a directed blast of TNT to get rid of handcuffs, he found the idea of trying on tuxes all afternoon less appalling. And there was the added benefit of getting to see Steve shirtless. Despite his activities yesterday with Steve, he had been denied the opportunity to appreciate a shirtless Steve. This was definitely not going to be as bad as he imagined.

Kamekona and Chin were already there when they arrived. Danny, Steve, and Joe were quickly shuffled off to dressing rooms—private, to Danny's disappointment—to change into their tuxes. When they came back out, Kamekona was suggesting wardrobe improvements to Chin.

"So what you guys think? Buttercup? Cabernet? Paisley lavender sunset for the vests?," Kamekona offered up to Chin.

"No, no, no. Malia was very specific. There are no vests, no bowties. And no paisley lavender anything."

"What does she think about the cummerbunds? Cuz you know I got to have a little flair!"

"Cummerbunds are restrictive," Joe chimed in.

"Restrictive?," Kamekona repeated.

"And unmanly," Joe said with a raised hand.

"You know, according to, ah, GQ, suspenders are trending. You have any problem with suspenders?," Danny asked.

Steve heard Joe agree with Danny.

"Functional. Dignified."

But wait. More importantly—his partner read GQ?

"Suspenders, huh?"

Kamekona did not sound convinced.

"Now hold on, hold on a second," Steve said. "Isn't this a beach wedding? What's wrong with boardies and, and slippers?"

"What's wrong with them is that they do not match the bridesmaids' dresses. And for the record, Danny, ah, neither do handcuffs."

Steve grinned wickedly. No way were those coming off yet. Not until he had gotten a turn playing with them. He glared at Chin, trying to will him to forget about the cuffs, but Kamekona interrupted his concentration.

"I was gonna ask about those."

"Show him the Jersey slip, Danno," Steve said.

Danny looked up at him, and Steve realized that his partner had definitely caught onto the game if the flirty smirk on his face was anything to go by.

"I would just shoot them off," Joe said for the hundredth time that day.

Maybe afterward, Steve thought.

"No key? No problem."

Kamekona grabbed his necklace and pulled it over his head. Steve's eyes narrowed.

"Bring it, bring it, bring it," Kamekona said, reaching for Danny's cuffed hand.

Danny pouted at Steve when Kamekona began to work on the lock with a piece of his necklace. At the sound of the cuffs snicking off, Steve's face fell into a dark scowl. But Danny's face lit up with a grin.

"Wow."

"It's an old island trick."

"Impressive," Danny said.

And Steve alone saw the burning look Danny gave him while he pocketed the handcuffs. Oh, they were definitely going to be using those handcuffs. But apparently Danny was not going to be the one they were going to be using them on.


End file.
